The cleanliness of the facilities and building as a whole, meanwhile, were branded "good".

The restaurant's head chef is Adam Bennett, who previously worked at Simpsons in Birmingham and also represented the UK in the prestigious Bocuse d’Or 2015 competition where he secured 6th place in the European finals in Stockholm.

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Andreas Antona, who owns The Cross as well as Michelin starred Simpsons in Birmingham, posted a statement on the restaurant website.

He said: “In light of the current one star rating, we want to reassure all our diners that The Cross takes health, safety and hygiene extremely seriously.

“The issues raised in the recent visit resulted from a paperwork misunderstanding and a broken vacuum packing machine.

“The Cross had a four-star rating in December prior to this inspection, little has changed in the set up or personnel, we reapplied hoping for an even better score at a revisit arranged for January 2017.

Andreas Antona (seated) at the Cross restaurant in Kenilworth, Warwickshire, with Michelin-starred chef Adam Bennett when it first opened

“At the revisit one of our vacuum packing machines was broken.

"We had implemented controls to protect customers, but the inspector marked us down for the issue.

“We have worked with Warwick District Council, completing all recommendations and are looking to reapply for a further revisit in the future.

“We have absolute confidence that we have always operated at the high standards expected of an award-winning establishment.

“Whilst we are not due a revisit until May we’d be happy to be inspected without prior warning.”